Saturday Snapshot V - Growth

Although there are still some areas to revisit and enhance, I'm pleased to report that 'odsock Corner has finally reached the stage where all the scenic ground cover is in place and there are no (unintentional) patches of bare earth. The previously turf-only narrow strip along the back edge of the layout can be glimpsed here through the gateway sporting a mixture of wild grass and brambles. 

A recent purchase of Green Scene 4mm straw grass, mixed with other longer grasses I already had to hand, has allowed me to create a pleasing colour and texture different to the other grassed areas on the layout. The brambles added along this edge and in the centre of the layout, use coir hanging basket liner material as a base and Woodland Scenics foliage material, with some added effects. Foliage creeps over the wall to effectively disguise the point it cuts off at the baseboard edge.

Colin

That tree in the corner...

In best railway tradition, this post is running late, at least a fortnight and possibly a month! It has got close to being published a couple of times but I really wanted to get the heading photo right and for various reasons it has taken a few attempts. 

We last featured this tree back in December in Twigging On when it looked suitably wintery and bare. it has now progressed scenically by about six months to be in full bloom. This is a task that was taken steadily and whilst usually a workshop task, the cold weather actually saw it completed in the house with a lot of cleaning up after each session.

Over the course of about a week the tree was fully foliaged using Woodland Scenics material, matt medium and hairspray, getting to the halfway point on the Sunday evening and completed on the weeknights.

The base layers of teased-out foliage material were secured to the branches using matt medium, working around the tree from the lower levels upwards. After the matt medium was dry on a level,  hairspray was used to secure additional material over the first layer to build up the effect of bushiness. 

Being indoors allowed the matt medium to dry fairly quickly so I could go away, do something else and return to take the next steps, then repeat... Working up the tree this way makes for pleasant, short working sessions before the task becomes too repetitive or the mind wanders... Once each layer was complete more hairspray secured the foliage in place and some lose material from the packet was sieved over to tree to further add to the layered effect.

Although nominally complete in the picture above a few extra layers of foliage were added to the top of the tree before I was satisfied enough to call the process to a halt, with the final result as shown in the heading photo.

Those paying attention and taking notes may notice from the heading photo that despite my careful planning to get items in place below the trees, there has been a re-arrangement of the various elements, hopefully giving a more coherent look. The broken Hudson wagon frame has been turned around and propped up on offcuts of timber, with the intention of having the other wheelset in front of it once modified and weathered. The cement bags have been placed on the floor near the slabs and just in case you needed to know they were cement bags, the top one has a clue added... 

A few extra items of junk are being produced to add a little more to this scene, hopefully to break up the linear feel everything has to the present time.

More soon...

Colin

It was 20 years ago today...

Well, yesterday (ahem), that I took the first under-construction photographs of what was to become 'Cumbria'. I may not have realised it at the time but this model was pivotal in my O9 modelling journey, being a step away from the heavy kit-bashing that had gone before and my first model closely following a prototype, in this case the Ravenglass steam tram 'Flower of the Forest'. My styrene techniques had been honed on a couple of experimental models in the month previously and would develop further as the months went on.

In a turn-around that I'd struggle to achieve these days, three weeks later the construction and detail work was complete and the paintshop was on speed-dial. After spending thirteen years as 'Cumbria' a partial repaint and rebranding undertaken by James Hilton saw 'Flower of the Forest' finally emerge from the works as a reminder of many journeys behind the prototype at Cleethorpes. 

As the coming months may offer up several 20th anniversaries I am considering how to best present these on the blog, especially as the recreated Fotopic site pages of the era are already hosted on the site, for example this page for the 'Cumbria' build. I expect I will highlight the milestone events such as this and maybe casually mention the others now and then... (OK, enough with the Beatles references!)

Colin

Stirring the wagon pot

In the last 'odsock Corner update I explained how I had substituted the intended Black Dog Mining based wagon in the siding scene with my "damaged" Hudson skip-frame flat. Before I had decided on this switch I had actually altered the original model and I thought it worth recording the work here.

Inspired by the work of Steve's Narrow Gauge Adventure, the planks of the damaged flat wagon destined for the siding were actually replaced like-for-like with real wood in the form of weathered coffee-stirrers. Fixings were represented simply by pushing a compass point into the wood and then the tip of a mechanical pencil after weathering.

This gave a much better representation of weathered wood than I had managed with the original scribed and painted styrene, which to be honest I wasn't too happy with anyway...

Once I had opted not to use the wagon in the siding scene it gained some "repairs" made in the form of new planks from un-weathered coffee stirrers. In my mind I was perhaps formulating a plan that involved it retaining the Black Dog coupler blocks and being used with the Avalon Line loco (and other suitable stock).

That may not come to pass, in truth the stock that will run around the Pizza is yet to be finalised (if indeed it needs to be) and equally what couplings they will have. I've said it before but when I start wagon tinkering it isn't always a sign of a good thing... In this vein a few recent wagon kit builds have left the fleet in the last week or so as they didn't quite meet my current thinking but that was not a reflection on them as models, just my thinking...

My cloud storage reminds me daily with an 'on this day' photo selection and ironically this week threw up several images of now-sold models. I'll leave you with this one from 2021, both the loco and diorama now have new homes, and I had space to build new things and a little money to re-invest.

Colin